Excess light bad for fish?

[JamesMJ2]

I want to grown some plants, and I am reading up on how much light is really needed. My concern is that if I get good light into the tank that I might actually be bad for the fish. I have a cheapo perfecto flour light right now, which brings the tank temp up, but also if freakin' bright.( it white washes all the color) I am wooried that I could actually blind the fish or something.. Call me crazy, but I just want to do it right.

 

[angelstiger]

I have never heard of blinding the fish with too much light. They would hide under plant leaves and stuff, If it got that bad. How big is the tank? Your flourescent is raising the tank temp? what wattage is it? The single bulb cheapos don't usually produce much heat.

 

[JamesMJ2]

Tank is a 20 gallon rectangle tank. The Flour bulb is a 15watt T8 bulb, on top of a glass lid.

 

[Bearfan]

Odds are your fluorescent light is not effecting the temperature of your tank measurably unless there is something not normal with the fixture.

The light is not harmful to the fish. Now with that said, if you have nocturnal fish like Shovelnosed Cats, Elephant Nose, raphael Cats, etc. you will need to provide areas of refuge to reduce their stress levels.

The light you currently have is below low light levels for plants. Typically you figure a minimum of 2 watts per gallon for low light up to around 5 watts per gallon for bright light.

 

[JamesMJ2]

Thanks for the info.. now while I am asking, What kind of light can I get that won't white wash the colors of my tank. Something thats energy effcient, I was thinking power compact, but it's same flourescent bulb.

 

[loganj]

There is no comparison between PC and normal output (NO) bulbs other than they are both fluorescent. The PC will hurt your eyes to look at it. One 55w PC should allow you to grow the low light and some of the medium light plants. Two of these bulbs and you should be able to grow about anything. There is a lot more to it than having enough light though. You may find that you have to supplement C02 to keep the plants growing. I would suggest asking corvuscorax about this before you spend any money as he knows quite a bit about planted tanks and what it takes to make them work.
Logan J

 

[Electrobes]

When I asked about lighting for my 29G tank, I got about the same answer that Logan has said. two 55w PC lights are great for just about everything. They mentioned that CO2 will make the plants grow like crazy, great supplement to the extra lighting